1. Field of the Invention
This invention is concerned with a blind-riveting machine comprising a transfer device for transferring a blind-riveting assembly from a receiving position to the nosepiece of a rivet-setting head of the machine.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
The expression "blind-riveting assembly" is used herein to denote an assembly of a type comprising a hollow rivet and a mandrel, the mandrel having a head and a stem, part of which lies within a tubular portion of the rivet and part of which projects from one end of the rivet. The mandrel head is too large to pass through the tubular portion of the rivet without deforming it, and the arrangement being such that after the tubular portion of the rivet has been inserted into a hole in a workpiece from one side, the rivet can be set by causing the mandrel head to effect radial expansion of the tubular portion at the other side of the workpiece upon pulling the mandrel stem and while holding the rivet against bodily movement relative to the workpiece. Usually, in blind-riveting the rivet has a head at the end from which the mandrel stem projects, and to set the rivet, use is made of a rivet-setting device comprising a nosepiece, which has a bore to receive the projecting part of the mandrel stem and provides an abutment to engage the rivet head and hold it against bodily movement relative to the workpiece during setting. The mandrel-pulling means pulls the projecting part of the mandrel stem along a longitudinal axis of the rivet-setting device coaxial with the bore in the nosepiece.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,475 there is described a blind-riveting machine which has a rivet-setting device and a transfer device for transferring blind-riveting assemblies from a receiving position, to which they are fed one after another along a raceway from a bulk supply in a hopper, to the nosepiece of the rivet-setting device. The transfer device described comprises a slide bar with a spiral groove in it so that it rotates at the same time as it reciprocates for the purpose of reorientating a blind-riveting assembly during transfer, and is relatively complex and expensive to manufacture. Moreover, the rivet-setting device itself is mounted for reciprocation towards and away from a work support in order that it can accept a blind-riveting assembly during its advance towards the work support.